THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL EISTOEY. 



[FIFTH SERIES.] 



No. 104. AUGUST 1886. 



IX. — Notes from the St. Andrews Marine Laboratory [under 

 the Fishery Board for Scotland). — No. V. On the Paternal 

 Instincts 0/ Cyclopterus lumpus, L. By Prof. M'Intosh 

 M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., &c. 



The care which certain male Teleosteans take of the ova 13 

 well known, while Dr. Giinther mentions only two cases (viz. 

 Aspredo and Solenostoma) in which females do so. In this 

 country the males of the river bullhead, the lumpsucker, and 

 the marine and freshwater Gastrostei are familiar instances 

 an interesting account of Gastrosteus spinachia, by Mr. E. E. 

 Prince,- indeed, having but lately appeared in this journal *. 



Most authors who have treated of Gyclopterus have observed 

 this feature in the male f ; but the interpretations placed on it 

 have been varied, some supposing that the mere fact of the 

 male being in the neighbourhood at deposition sufficed to 

 account for its subsequent appearance near the eggs, while 

 others, after Fabricius, bestowed considerable attention on the 

 description of the instinct. In regard to the remarks of 

 Fabricius, however, it is doubtful if the wolf-fish would be 

 much inconvenienced by the attacks of the lumpsucker. 



* Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. Dec. 1885, pp. 487 et seq. 

 t It is sufficient, under ordinary circumstances, to try to push them off 

 guard with a stick to bring out this clearly. 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 5. Vol. xviii. 6 



